


Falling Hard

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Twin Trade AU [6]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: AU episode ending, Gen, Not What He Seems spoilers, This fic takes place in two separate universes simultaneously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-04-12
Packaged: 2018-03-18 17:43:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3578271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[an AU] In which Mabel gets thrown through the portal into an alternate version of reality, which as been hosting her own universe’s version of Stanley Pines for the last 30 years. But while Mabel has twice the Pines Twins comfort to help her cope, Dipper is left alone back home to figure things out on his own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. zogvimzgv

**Author's Note:**

> Let's be honest, here, every one of us had that moment of 'oh my god, Mabel's _gone'_ after everything went white in Not What He Seems.  
>  I just decided to... explore the idea a bit more.  
> I'm rolling with the generally accepted name for Stan's brother, because with everything else that gets shifted around in the Alt!timeline, it seemed silly to be more confusing than necessary.  
> (Side note, I'm kind of tempted to do a separate little fic just playing with the alternate timeline, because I like it a lot. If I do that, though, it'll probably be set before this & explore one of the other episode plots in the alt!universe before the Swap. I'll finish this one first, though, I promise.)

Whatever happened, Mabel didn’t regret her decision.

For better or worse, she _did_ trust Stan, and she knew that he wouldn’t have done all this for no reason. She floated upwards, weightless for just a moment. There was a flash of white light.

And then she was hurtling backward, through colour and cold and a confusing mess of sound.

She crashed to the ground, and for a moment she felt utterly triumphant. She was alive, and everything was okay.

Only this room wasn’t right. It was too brightly lit, too clean. And the portal – Mabel spun around, looking into every corner, at every wall – the portal _wasn’t there._

“Stan! Stan, did it –“ A boy’s voice, familiar but not quite right, called. “Oh, no.”

The boy who spoke had just run into the room through a door behind Mabel. He looked sort of like Dipper, but not really like Dipper. He wore a green sweater with a padlock on it.

“Who are you?” Mabel asked warily. “Where am I?”

Not-Dipper frowned. “I – I should go get Granddad and Grunkle Ford.” He turned and started to leave.

Mabel caught him by the arm. “ _Wait_! Please – just – where am I?”

“It’s complicated,” Not-Dipper said. “Let me get the Stans, they can explain. It’s – _Ursa!_ ”

A girl in a baseball cap stuck her head into the room. “Did it work, Max?”

The boy – Max, apparently – gestured to Mabel, with one eyebrow raised.

“Oh. Oh, no,” said the girl (Ursa?). “Go get the Stans, I’ll try to explain.”

\--

“The Author of the Journals,” Stan said. “My brother.”

Dipper was stunned, but not stunned enough to not notice the glaringly empty space next to him.

“Where’s Mabel?”

Stan, who was still staring at his brother, didn’t answer.

Dipper turned, ready to launch himself at Stan again. “Where. Is. My. Sister?”

The Author – Stan’s brother, whatever – put a hand on Dipper’s shoulder.

Dipper jerked away. “Get away from me! This is all your fault!”

He ran over to what was left of the portal and kicked it. _Give her back, give her back!_

\--

“It’s a parallel universe,” Ursa said. “A version of reality where a different course of history played out. It’s hard to tell where the point of divergence is, but your Stanford said it was probably when he came here, and our Stanford didn’t pull the same stunt.”

“Who?” said Mabel.

“Granddad’s brother,” replied Ursa, frowning. “He’s a researcher, studying Gravity Falls.”

Mabel shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“Stanford Pines,” Ursa said slowly. “In your universe, he’s been gone for thirty-odd years. Granddad Pines – Stanford Pines’s brother.”

“Stan Pines isn’t anybody’s _granddad_ ,” Mabel replied, waving her hand dismissively. “He’s our Grunkle!”

Ursa rubbed the back of her neck. “Uh, y’know what, I’m gonna leave that one for the Stan squad.”

“So how do I get home?” asked Mabel.

“You don’t.” It wasn’t Ursa who said it, but an almost-too-familiar-to-be-true grown man’s voice. Grunkle Stan, but not Grunkle Stan. _This_ universe’s Stanley Pines, who was standing in the doorway with another, near-identical, man and Max.

“What?” Mabel said.

“There’s no going back,” Not-Stan repeated.

“We can’t risk rebuilding the portal here,” Other-Not-Stan explained. “So unless someone opens it from the other side again –“

Mabel shook her head. “No. No, no, no. There has to be _some_ way!”

She ran to the far wall, the one she’d landed nearest, and started banging on it with her fists and kicking with as much force as she could. _Take me back, take me back!_

\--

“If it’s any comfort, she’s in good hands,” the Author said.

“It isn’t, Ford,” Stan said. “Trust me, it isn’t.”

Dipper had given up, and was sitting on his feet, staring blankly at the wall.

“You know where she is,” he said, and it wasn’t a question anymore.

“I do,” the Author confirmed.

“Do you know how to get her back?”

“No.”

“Well –“ Stan started, but his brother cut him off.

“ _No_. As my brother very well knows, it isn’t safe to reopen the portal that brought me here, even if we _did_ have the power and it hadn’t been destroyed.”

Dipper let his head fall forward, resting it against the wall. “But she’s safe?”

“As safe as anyone is in Gravity Falls.”

“She’s not _in_ Gravity Falls anymore,” Dipper said, trying and failing to keep the resentment out of his voice.

“Not _this_ Gravity Falls, no. But she’ll be alright. They’ll take care of her.”

\--

“I’m really sorry you’re stuck here,” Max said. He’d crossed the room and put his hand on Mabel’s shoulder when she finally gave up on getting back. “Ursa’s not always good at being comforting. She made it sound like one of her research projects for Gramps and Grunkle Ford, didn’t she?”

Mabel shrugged.

“You’ll be okay,” Max carried on. “I know you’re not now. But we’ll take care of you.” He took Mabel’s hands gently. “Would you come upstairs with me? Granddad’s got the big first aid kit out, we can fix you up.”

She let him lead her up to the main level of the Shack, which looked more or less like the one where she lived back home. There were different things strewn about, and evidence of more people living there than she was used to, but it was in essence home. She sniffled.

Ursa was sitting at the kitchen table, cross-legged, with a journal and a clicky pen in front of her. When she noticed Max and Mabel, she blurted, “I’m not gonna research her, I promise!”

“You promised you’d practice your lying, too,” said Stan. Not Stan.

Max guided Mabel to the chair on the opposite side of the table. “Hey, that reminds me, what’s your name? I’m Max, that’s Ursa, and Granddad Lee and his brother Grunkle Ford.”

“I’m Mabel,” she mumbled. “My brother’s name is Dipper, and we live with our Grunkle Stan, and this is a _dream_.”

“Mabel, sweetie –“

She wasn’t looking, so she didn’t know which of the Stans said it, but those two words were enough to finally break Mabel’s resolve not to cry.

\--

Dipper didn’t leave the basement lab until he fell asleep on his feet and Grunkle Stan brought him up to his room.

He woke up hours later and sunlight was streaming in through their smashed window, and the room felt strange - empty.  He blinked a few times in the direction of Mabel’s bed, then rolled over and pulled the blankets over his head.

He didn’t want to deal with today, so he didn’t.

\--

One of the Stans brought an air mattress up to the attic for Mabel to sleep on, and Ursa dug out some pyjamas for her.

(The pyjamas smelled like Dipper, which was something Mabel had never been grateful for in her _life_ before this moment.)

She couldn’t sleep, instead she stared blankly at the ceiling for a few hours.

It was no later than 4:30am, and the earliest bits of predawn sunlight had started to creep into the room. Mabel heard movement on either side of her, but didn’t turn to see what the Other Twins were doing.

Max rolled off of his bed, and Ursa climbed off of hers. In a moment, they’d both flopped onto the air mattress, on either side of Mabel. Their combined weight on the slightly underinflated mattress momentarily threw Mabel into the air, and she squawked, startled.

“Sorry, were you asleep?” Ursa asked, sounding genuinely apologetic.

Max swatted at his sister’s shoulder. “Of course she wasn’t, dummy. Would you be?”

Mabel sat up, brushing her hair away from her face. “I could’a been.”

“But you weren’t,” said Max. Nobody said anything for a minute, then Max blurted, “So, you’re me, right?”

“ _Max!”_ Ursa said, leaning across Mabel to poke her brother a few times.

Mabel laughed. “It’s okay. Yeah, I think so.”

“Makes sense,” said Ursa, who’d settled back onto her heels and was reaching for the journal on her bedside table. “You said your brother’s called Dipper, right?”

“Uh, yes?”

Ursa nodded, then pushed her bangs away from her face. She had a birthmark, a lot like Dipper’s, across her forehead. “Is his the same? Or similar, at least?” Mabel nodded. “I thought so! The Big Dipper’s part of the same constellation my nickname comes from, so I figured –“

“ _Dork_ ,” Max whispered.

Mabel giggled. “Yeah, you’re definitely the Dipper twin.” Her face fell. “Do you think he’s okay?”

“No,” Ursa said matter-of-factly. “But Stan and your Granddad – er, Grunkle Lee – and the others will take care of him. He’ll be alright.”

\--

“Hey, man, are you alright?”

Dipper blinked a few times, then shrugged.

“Where’s Mabel?”

Dipper shook his head.

“Dude,” Wendy said, bending her knees so she could look at him at his own eye-level, “what does that even mean?”

“She’s gone,” said Dipper. His voice was hoarse from all the shouting (and crying) he’d done in the last two days.

Wendy’s eyes went wide. “You mean she’s –“

“No,” Dipper interrupted, his voice breaking. He couldn’t bear to even think of that possibility. “She’s just… gone. Ask _Stanford_. He knows.”

“That’s that other old guy who was talking to Stan earlier, right?” Wendy asked. Dipper nodded. “Who _is_ that guy, anyway?”

“Stan’s brother.”

“Stan has a brother?”

Dipper shrugged.

“The Shack looked pretty messed up,” Wendy observed. “Is it, like, safe for you guys to be living there?”

Dipper shrugged again. “Dunno. But we’re gonna stay until they arrest Stan again, probably, so…”

“What was that even about?”

“He almost made the world explode. Brought Stanford back, but Mabel’s gone.”

“Dipper. Dude. Are you okay?” Wendy repeated.

“You know,” Dipper said abruptly, “I’m not really in the mood to hang out with you guys right now. I think I’m gonna go home.”

“Okay,” Wendy replied, patting him on the shoulder. “Call me if you change your mind, we’ll come pick you up.”

“Thanks, Wendy.”

“Any time.”

\--

“Woah, hey guys! Who’s your friend?”

“Hey, Wendy,” said Max, waving. He dragged Mabel over to the counter. “This is Mabel! She’s our – cousin?”

“Second cousin,” Ursa corrected. “She’s – Grunkle Stan’s granddaughter.”

“Aw, cool!” said Wendy. “Hey, where _is_ Stan, anyway?”

The twins looked at each other.

Max said, “Left on family business?” just as Ursa answered, “Research trip.”

Wendy laughed. “You guys don’t sound so sure about that. Sure it’s your final answer?”

“It was a family research trip,” Max and Ursa decided in unison.

Mabel burst into giggles.

“Nice save,” Wendy said, grinning. “I’ll pretend I believe you.”

“As well you should,” said Max.

“It sucks that your granddad left right after you got here,” Wendy said to Mabel. “I hope you weren’t coming just to see him, that’d be, like, the worst.”

“Nah, I don’t mind,” said Mabel. “We had some… stuff happening at home. I didn’t really get a choice about coming here.”

“This town’s alright,” Wendy said. “’Specially with these two dorks around.”

Ursa went faintly pink, which Mabel filed away for later. If she was going to be stuck here for a while, she might as well let herself enjoy it.

\--

Dipper marched into Grunkle Stan’s office, wherein both Stan and his brother had been hiding since at least this morning.

“We have to get her back.”

Stan and the Author – Stanford, whatever - looked at each other.

Stan (who still hadn’t really explained anything, not the newspaper articles or the fake IDs, not even where Stanford had been all this time) stood up. “Okay.”


	2. ivhvzixs rh z yrgxs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea whether _other_ people are enjoying this, but I sure as hell am. It feels a little weird to write, with how everybody's affected by the Weirdness, but it's cool. The longer I work on this story, the more of the alt!timeline's version of events leading up to this point we get figured out, which is also cool.  
>  Okay! Have a new chapter!

“We can’t just pretend that everything’s fine, Lee. The kids’ parents are going to notice if you only send one home when you started with two.”

“It’s complicated.”

“What about it? You _lost their child_! They have a right to know.”

“They’d want Dipper back in California before we could say ‘teleportation.’ The kid would never forgive us if we didn’t give him every chance to help bring her back.”

“I admit that I haven’t known Dipper very long, but I’m getting the impression he’s not going to forgive you any time soon anyway.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve been there.”

\--

“I know you’re the Max-twin, but do you want to help with my research?”

“Huh?” said Mabel, looking up from the scrapbook she was flipping through.

“The Grunkles – well, just Grunkle Ford now, I guess – let me be their research assistant sometimes,” Ursa said. “But mostly I’m supposed to figure things out for myself. It’s a learning experience, or something.” She held out her journal, which was navy blue and dotted with stars. “It’s pretty cool. Except for that time I got possessed, and the times we almost died.”

Mabel took the journal and set it on top of the scrapbook. “You got possessed, too? How’d that happen?”

Ursa scratched behind her ear. “Uh, it’s complicated. And was kind of an accident.”

“That’s what Dipper said, too,” replied Mabel, shaking her head. “What are you studying?”

“We’re going ghost hunting this week,” Ursa said, smiling hopefully. “And then – uh, I was thinking we could start looking for a way to get you home that won’t rip the world apart.”

  
“Really?” asked Mabel.

“Of course,” said Ursa. “I mean, I don’t know how much good it’ll do; the Stan squad’s been working on that for, like, 30 years, but –“

“Ursa,” Mabel interrupted, “it’s okay. You’re trying. It means a lot.”

“Oh. Good,” Ursa said. “So, what do you say – ghost hunt? Tomorrow?”

“Sure. That sounds like fun.”

Ursa grinned. “Awesome.” Mabel offered the journal, and she took it back. “So, do you and Dipper go on research adventures, too, or –“

“ _Mabel!”_ Max’s voice called from the far, distant reaches of the house. “ _I need you to come try this on!”_

“You’d better go quickly,” Ursa advised. “My brother waits for no one.”

“Okay. Do you know what he’s making?”

“I do. But I’m not allowed to tell you, it’s a secret. Now go, or he’ll send the pig after you.”

\--

Waddles was chewing on Dipper’s sock. Dipper wasn’t really aware of this, primarily because he had fallen asleep at the kitchen table.

“Hey. Uh, hey, kid,” Stanford said hesitantly, poking Dipper with a capped pen. “Wake up.”

Dipper pushed his head up, blinking slowly. “Wha?”

“When was the last time you ate?”

“I, uh – what day is it?” Dipper asked, rubbing his eyes.

“And that answers that question. Let’s see what your granddad has in the fridge,” Stanford said.

“I’m not really hun-“ Dipper started. “Wait – what?”

Stanford, who had been warily investigating the cupboards, turned to look at him. “Right. Well, this is more a conversation for you and Lee to have, but he’s not actually your great uncle –“

“I know,” Dipper interrupted bitterly.

“- he’s your grandfather. Surprise.”

Dipper raised his eyebrows, suddenly very awake. “I think I would _know_ if Stan –“

“Trust me, kid, he is,” Stanford interrupted. “You can ask him the hows and whys later, but he is.” He set a box of cereal and a bowl in front of Dipper. “He’s also planning to lie through his teeth to your parents so they won’t take you away before you get a chance to try to bring your sister back.”

“He – he is?”

“Damn right he is,” said Stanford. “And don’t you forget it. Now, I’ve heard that you’ve gotten your hands on one of my old journals.”

Dipper’s eyes widened. He hadn’t even thought of what might actually happen if he _found_ the Author. With all of that ‘trust no one’ stuff and writing in invisible ink, he could hardly imagine that the man would take some random kid going through his stuff particularly well.

“This town is dangerous; I don’t know which journal you have, but after a while it all started to get to me, before,” Stanford said, shaking his head. “I went down a path I shouldn’t have. But tell me, Dipper: has it helped you? The journal?”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, it has. I mean, I’m not dead yet,” said Dipper.

Stanford chuckled.  “Ursa would’ve said much the same thing.”

“Who’s Ursa?”

“She’s – well _, you,_ I suppose,” said Stanford. “Where I’ve been all the time – where your sister is now – is a parallel universe. An alternate set of outcomes for all of our lives. Ursa was – under supervision, of course – investigating the strange phenomena in the town.”

“And she’s – she’s gonna look out for Mabel, right?” Dipper asked.

“I have no doubt of that,” Stanford replied.

\--

“Mabel, look out!”

Mabel, who hadn’t really been given enough warning to get out of the way entirely, dropped to the ground and rolled sideways.

“Okay, you’re clear! C’mon, let’s go!”

Before Mabel had a chance to breathe, one of the others had grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet, dragging her forward. “If you get eaten before you get home, your brother’s gonna jump universes and kill me!”

Mabel laughed. She let Max – he was leading her, with their hands lost in the overlapping cuffs of their sweaters – steer her towards home. Almost home.

If it weren’t for the stunning, dizzying absence of her brother (which sometimes felt like a dull ache, sometimes felt like she’d recently lost a limb), she might never want to leave. She’d always wanted more siblings, after all, and Max and Ursa had basically adopted her. Soos and Wendy are almost just like at home, only Soos had never been so competent on monster hunts back home, and Wendy has a thing about taking Ursa’s hat and hiding it places just out of her reach. Their guardians were like home, too, but not. She rather missed her own version of Granddad Lee – Grunkle Stan-who-wasn’t-really-their-Grunkle-after-all – but this universe’s ‘Stan squad’ were good to her, and for that she was grateful.

“That was _awesome!”_ Ursa said as they stumbled onto the back porch. “Don’t talk to me for the rest of the day, I have to write everything down before I forget!”

Max laughed and pulled Mabel into the house, leaving Ursa on the porch to scribble madly in her journal until her hands got tired. “She’ll be out there ‘till dinner at least. She gets like that after good adventures. The day after the Northwests’ party, she didn’t even come out of the lab to eat; I didn’t see her until Stan went down to –“

He trailed off, giving Mabel a sad look.

“Dipper’s like that, too, sometimes,” she replied, pretending she hadn’t noticed. “Only, not after the Northwest thing; the day after that happened we launched fireworks off the roof and then Stan got super-arrested. No time.”

“Aw, man, we never get to launch fireworks off the roof,” said Max. “I bet Granddad would let us, but Grunkle Ford would say it’s ‘too dangerous’ and then send us off to go get eaten in the woods.”

\--

“Dipper?”

“Go away.”

“Kid, I just want to help. I know you’re mad at me –“

“With good reason! This is all your fault!”

“You would have done the same thing. You’re _trying_ to do the same thing.”

“Yeah, _without_ blowing up the world.”

“Not without help.”

Dipper scrunched up his nose. “Why should I trust you? You’ve been lying to us all summer!”

“Yes. I have. Getting yourself killed isn’t going to change that,” Stan pointed out. “Look, I want to get Mabel back, too. You’re not doing her any favours by holding a grudge against the guy who made the portal work in the first place.”

“You owe me some explanations. Lots of explanations.”

“While we work. How many books have you squirreled away in that attic?”

“Eighteen? Twenty? I don’t know. Are you really our granddad?”

“Arguably. It got complicated after the mind-wipe stuff, and then I went on the run for a while –“

“ _Stan_.”

“Yes.”

“Weird.”

It wasn’t exactly reconciliation; it wasn’t even close. It was more like a mutual decision not to poke their issues with a stick until they could fix the one thing that might be fixable before time ran out.


	3. wivzn z orggov wivzn

Ursa didn’t talk about the possession thing. Ever.

The fact was, even _Max_ didn’t really know what had happened that day. Grunkle Ford probably had the best idea of it; Ursa was pretty sure that sometime way back when he was young and stupid, he’d done something similar. Ursa hadn’t given that too much thought, though.

She just wanted to put it behind her, but it was hard to forget when Bill was tucked away all over town. But for Mabel –

Ursa knew that if things had been the other way around, if she’d been the one left alone with Max trapped in some other reality, she’d hope her counterpart was doing everything he could to send her brother home. And all the while, she’d be doing the same on her side.

She owed it to Mabel – to Dipper, really – to do whatever she could.

So, little as she wanted to think about Bill Cipher, Ursa crept into the vault in the Bunker one night, determined to find all of her Grunkles’ research into the mindscape, Bill’s plane of existence. The key was there, somewhere.

\--

Dipper felt like he was going in circles. Grunkle Stan – or granddad, or whatever - could only help so much, and Stanford didn’t have access to any of his more recent notes.

He’d made no progress at all in the week since Mabel was lost, and he was starting to forget sleep again. His side of their attic bedroom was strewn with books and scraps of paper, failed idea after failed idea. Mabel’s side of the room, however, was actually _cleaner_ than usual, as Waddles had been given more or less free reign.

(Dipper never thought he’d see the day when he admitted that he was messier than a pig, but stranger things had happened this summer.)

He found himself dozing off entirely against his will, but he just _couldn’t_ stay awake any longer. More often than anything else, it was just those tiny microsleeps that happen to everybody once in a while.

This was different. He’d been standing - in middle of crossing the room to pick up a crumpled almost idea – and he sat down for just a moment, then before he knew it he was curled up with a pig on his sister’s abandoned twin bed, sound asleep.

His dreams were weird and disjointed, as dreams sometimes are.

And then –

“Dipper?” A girl’s voice called from somewhere distant. “Hey, Dipper!”

“Huh?” said Dipper. He looked around, trying to see where the speaker was. He couldn’t see anyone; he was alone in the Shack’s gift shop.

“Did it work?” the voice said. It sounded weird, like a radio tuning in and out. And then a person flickered into existence in front of Dipper. She looked like Mabel, but not entirely like Mabel, and she definitely didn’t _sound_ like Mabel. She was dressed almost identically to Dipper. “Hah! It worked!”

“Uh, _what_ worked?” asked Dipper.

“I’m here! And you’re here!” she said, grinning. Something about her smile was a little bit off, a little crazed.

“Who are you?” Dipper asked, taking a half-step back.

“I’m you! I mean, you’re you. I’m Ursa. But –“

“Ursa?” Dipper repeated. “Like –“

“From the other reality, yeah!” Ursa finished.

“Why should I believe you?” said Dipper. “You could be a figment of my imagination, or worse – you could be Bill, just pretending!”

Ursa’s smile faded. “Or you could be. Right.” She jumped up onto the counter, looking defeated. “I thought, for a second – but no, I’m probably just projecting this.”

“How could _you_ be imagining this?” Dipper asked. “This is _my_ dream.”

“Oh, that’s a good point. This _is_ your dream,” Ursa said. “I’m not actually asleep – or, at least, I shouldn’t be.”

“How are you dreaming if you’re not asleep?”

“I’m _not_ dreaming. You’re dreaming,” Ursa pointed out. “ _I’m_ meditating. We’re in your head. I – I snuck into Grunkle Ford’s lab, in the Bunker. He and Stan – your Stanford, that is – keep a vault down here with all of their research.”

“That still doesn’t explain how you’re in my head, if you’re really in another universe,” said Dipper, frowning.

“Well, I was working on the theory that you and me are each other’s counterparts,” explained Ursa. “I mean, there was always the possibility that I’d get this spell to work and I’d just end up in Mabel’s head. The thing is, the plane we’re on right now is the same across realities. It might even be what’s between different versions of the universe. We just don’t notice, because –“

“You can only connect with yourself,” Dipper guessed.

“Right,” agreed Ursa. “And it has to be intentional. The Grunkles experimented with it, apparently, but I wasn’t sure it would work since we’re not in the same version of reality.”

“But it did,” observed Dipper. He poked her shoulder to emphasise his point. “So why’d you do it?”

\--

Ursa took a deep breath. Or, at least, the projection of her inside of Dipper’s dream _appeared_ to take a deep breath.

(She noted, idly, that this was probably pretty high up on the list of ‘ridiculously weird things we’ve done this summer.’)

“I think we need to work together,” she said.

“To…?”

“Get your sister home?” Ursa finished. “Geez, I know I get obsessive, but when was the last time you slept? For real slept, not just crashed at the kitchen table.”

“You think we can do that?” asked Dipper, ignoring her question.

“I’m sure that we’re better off working together than not,” Ursa said, shrugging. “But not tonight.”

“How come?” Dipper asked. He was clearly disappointed, but Ursa stood her ground.

“Dude, you even look exhausted _in your dream_ ,” she said. “I’m gonna leave now, and you’re not allowed to wake up until you’re properly rested. Don’t argue, May and Max would kill me if I let you waste your sleep time when you’re that exhausted.”

“Wait!” Dipper called, as Ursa started to gather her energy to leave. “Mabel’s okay, right?”

Not for the first time, Ursa’s heart ached for her double. “Yeah. She’s okay.”

Dipper nodded. “Good.”

Dipper, along with all of their surroundings, started to fade away. After a moment, she was sitting in an empty blackness.

The void was the space between sleep and consciousness, which she’d only been aware of one other time – the day that Gideon Gleeful had sent Bill Cipher into her Granddad’s mind.

She blinked a few times, and the blackness solidified into the Journal vault again.

“It _worked_ ,” she whispered. She didn’t have too much time to sit in stunned awe at her achievement, however, because her watch read 04:32, and she had to get back up to the attic in the Shack before sunup if she had any hope of pretending she’d never left. She tucked each journal back into the appropriate spot, jotted down a quick list of observations about the experience and the version of the Shack she’d seen in Dipper’s mind, then threw her own journal back into her backpack and retreated to the house at top speed.

\--

It was light out when Dipper woke up. Waddles was sniffing his face, which was not a particularly unusual occurrence.

Dipper sat up, rubbing his eyes.

_Did that really happen?_

Given everything else that had happened this summer, given where he was and who he was, it probably had. He lunged for the nearest spiral-bound notebook and started writing down everything Ursa had said, just in case.

And then… maybe he’d go make a sandwich or something. He was pretty sure he’d been eating his shirt again.


	4. nriili, nriili

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since the last chapter was all the Dipper-twins, this one's about Max and Mabel!  
> Yaaaaaaay!

It was just after dawn, and Max was staring at the ceiling above his bed. He’d been sound asleep until his sister snuck in, probably thinking that nobody would even have realised she’d been gone, and now he couldn’t fall back asleep. There was no point getting up yet; no one else was likely to be awake for hours.

Max occupied the time by planning out the day. He wanted to take Mabel out into the town. She’d pointed out a few things in and around the Mystery Shack that weren’t quite the same as back home, and Max was curious about where else their universes differed. But more than that, he wanted to help Mabel get to know _their_ Gravity Falls, because this was home until they could find a way to send her back. He wanted her to feel welcome, comfortable.

He wondered, idly, whether Orion Northwest was really going to be grounded for the rest of the summer. Max and Orion didn’t exactly get along, but their hostility had been a lot less genuinely hostile since their… golf outing, and Max thought it would be kind of funny to see how he reacted to meeting Mabel. (Plus, he and Ursa seemed to have been getting along pretty well the last time they met, and Ursa didn’t have a lot of friends here.)

Sunlight was creeping through the windows now, and Mabel had started to squirm around and stretch in that ‘I’m-about-to-be-awake’ way.

“Max?”

“Shhh,” Max whispered. “Ursa just went to sleep. Let’s go downstairs, I’ll make pancakes.”

They crept out of the room, still in their pyjamas.

“So are we going on another adventure today?” Mabel asked, once she’d perched cross-legged on one of the kitchen chairs.

“Nah,” said Max. “Ursa’s probably going to sleep all day, and we’ve got a shift at the gift shop this afternoon. But I was thinking we could go into town. You haven’t met, like, _anybody_ here yet!”

“That sounds like fun. Can I borrow a sweater?” Mabel replied.

“No,” said Max. “Even better. I finished your surprise. But it’s upstairs, so we can get it after breakfast.”

\--

The sweater Max had made for her was patterned after Ursa’s – Dipper’s – hat. The sleeves and collar were blue and the body was white, with a pine tree in the centre. Its sleeves reached just past the tips of her longest fingers.

“I know you’re homesick,” he said, looking nervous. “So I thought…”

Mabel hugged him. “Thank you.”

They went out after that, happily wandering the town. They ran into Candy and Grenda, who seemed to be more or less the same as back home. Max was good friends with them, but not as close as Mabel was to their counterparts.

“Hey, guys! This is my second cousin, Mabel!” Max said, throwing an arm around Mabel’s shoulders. “She might be in town for a while, so I thought I’d introduce you!”

Candy, who was sitting on Grenda’s shoulders, waved. Grenda shouted, “Welcome!” with her usual forcefulness.

Mabel grinned and gave a little wave.  “Hi.”

“We cannot stop to talk right now,” Candy said, looking apologetic. “We are on a mission!”

“Go ahead,” said Max.

“To the grocery store!” Grenda cheered, running off.

“They’re just like home,” Mabel said quietly.

“Good,” Max replied. He squeezed her shoulders. “I want you to feel like you’re home here, even though you’re –“

“Not,” Mabel finished.

“Well, yeah,” said Max. For one long, weird moment, neither of them said anything. “Come on, there’s one more person I want you to meet before we have to go back to the Shack.”

He pulled her along through town apparently aimlessly, looking into shop windows and cars. She appreciated the effort to make her feel welcome, however desperately she hoped that it would all be unwarranted, that she’d be properly home before they knew it.

“Who are we looking for?” Mabel asked after a while.

Max smiled mischievously. “Well, he might still be in trouble. But I wanna see Orion’s face when he realises there are three of us now. I mean, he and Ursa are cool now, but I still think it’ll be funny.”

“Orion?” Mabel repeated. She could tell already that this was one of those places where their universes differed more than usual, and she even had a guess at who his counterpart was, but it was still worth asking.

“Orion Northwest,” said Max. He crinkled his nose. “Is he different, there?”

“He’s like us,” Mabel said, waving a hand between the two of them. Her meaning was clear enough, but she still added, “Her name is Pacifica.”

“Pacifica Northwest,” Max said, eyebrows raised. “I like it.”

\--

They did, eventually, find Orion. Or rather, he found them.

“Hey, Urs- oh,” he said, tapping Mabel on the shoulder. “You’re… not Ursa. Who are you?”

“Orion, this is Mabel,” said Max, grinning. “She’s our secret third sibling!”

“There are _three_ of you?” Orion replied, eyes wide. “Is that even, like, allowed?”

Mabel elbowed Max. “ _Max._ ”

“What?” Max said innocently. “You are. Kind of.”

“I’m their… cousin,” Mabel corrected, rolling her eyes and offering a hand to Orion.

“You don’t really seem sure about that,” Orion said. His eyes narrowed. “You’re not, like, one of their weird… _things_ , are you? Like, you’re human and stuff, right?”

Mabel snorted. “I’m definitely human.”

 _Not one of Ursa’s crazy conspiracies, though, not so much,_ thought Max.

“Okay, cool,” said Orion, finally shaking Mabel’s hand. “Your cousins are pretty weird.”

“I know. That’s why I love ‘em!” Mabel replied.

Orion gave a little – almost involuntary – smile. “Ursa’s alright. I don’t know about this one, though.” He gestured to Max, but he was still smiling.

“Hey, speaking of my darling sister,” said Max, “she was pretty convinced that you were going to be grounded until the end of time after the stunt you pulled at the party.”

“Well, keeping me grounded too long isn’t good for the family’s image,” Orion said. “So I’ve been allowed out, as long as I don’t talk to ‘that no-good Pines girl or her brother’ – naturally, I’ve been looking for you all day.”

His imitation of his father’s voice made Mabel snort, which in turn brought smiles to Max and Orion’s faces, too.

“Ursa’s probably still asleep,” Max said. “I’m pretty sure she was up all night researching…”

He glanced at Mabel.

“I thought you said she _wasn’t_ one of Ursa’s weird projects,” said Orion.

“We never said that,” Mabel pointed out. “I just said I was human.”

Orion rolled his eyes. “My life was so much less weird before I stopped hating you two on principle.”

“This is way more fun, though,” Max said, grinning.

Orion smiled, but his eyes flicked over to something just over Max’s shoulder. “Shoot, that’s the butler; I’ve got to run. Nice meeting you, Mabel.”

And with that, he ran off.

“We should probably go home, too,” Max told Mabel. “I wasn’t joking about Ursa sleeping all day, and her shift starts before mine.”

\--

There was something weirdly comforting about working at the Mystery Shack. Even the things that sometimes bothered Mabel back home – the lying, the stealing, the sometimes-abrasive boss voice that Lee used – were all little reminders of home.

During that afternoon’s shift, Grunkle Ford crossed in and out of the Shack through the gift shop entrance six times. Granddad Lee led sixteen tourists through the gallery. Max rearranged the snow globes eight times (he was really just inching all of them closer to the edges of their shelves more than properly rearranging, but he had to stop when one of them finally tumbled over the edge just as Lee walked into the room). Wendy sold one guy 27 different trinkets, in three separate transactions.

Mabel sat on an upper shelf – she’d been lifted up there by Soos back at the beginning of the shift – and people-watched for the better part of four hours.

Ursa wandered into the shop at around three, looking happy.

“What’s got you so smiley, smiley-face?” Mabel asked.

“I just slept well this, uh, morning,” replied Ursa. “You want a hand getting down?”

“Sure!” said Mabel, scooting toward the edge of the shelf. “Catch me?”

“Go ahead,” Ursa said. She held her arms out and braced herself. Mabel let herself fall, and Ursa caught her without even losing her footing.

…Until Max barrelled into them, sending all three of them tumbling to the ground.

“Hey, sis!” he said, pushing up onto his elbows. “Sleep well?”

Mabel rolled away, laughing harder than she’d laughed in days.


	5. xizhs zmw yfim

“Hey, kid, are you okay?”

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’re just actin’ kinda weird, is all.”

“I’m fine, don’t worry about it.”

“It’s a little too late for that.”

\--

“Dipper!”

“Ursa, hey!”

“How are you doing, have you been sleeping?”

Dipper raised his eyebrows. “Ursa.”

Ursa waved one hand impatiently. “Shut up, Fun Dip, you know what I meant.”

“Yes, I’ve been sleeping,” Dipper said, rolling his eyes. “I think Stan and Stanford are starting to worry about _that_ now. Geez, first I sleep too little –“

“Now you sleep too much,” Ursa finished, nodding. “Yeah, I feel ya. Max’s been giving me funny looks.”

“Not Mabel?” Dipper asked.

“She doesn’t know what my sleep habits were like before,” Ursa said, shrugging. “She’s starting to chafe, a bit. Max wants her happy, comfortable, but he’s trying to make things feel the _same_ , and it’s just… not.”

“But we’ll get her home, and then it’ll be the real deal,” Dipper said firmly.

“You know it. So, where did we leave off?”

“You-know-who and tears in space-time.”

“Let’s do this thing.”

\--

“Why do you keep trying to make plans with Orion?”

Mabel picked at the cuff of her sweater sleeve. “This place feels way less… wrong, when I’m with him. Same with you, and Ursa. The rest is too close, it – it itches.”

Max flopped onto the chair next to her. “I don’t get it.”

“It’s different here, so I just wanna let it _be_ different.”

“Oh.” Max scratched behind his ear. “Sorry.”

“Nah, you’re just trying to make sure I’m okay. I’m cool with that.” She elbowed him. “Y’wanna go sit on the roof and make up life stories for the tourists?”

“You know I do,” Max replied, grinning.

Mabel jumped up. “Last one there has to give up all their shiny stickers for a week!”

\--

The Stans had imposed a deadline. If Dipper (and Ursa) couldn’t find a way to bring Mabel home before the 31st of August, that was it.

They’d keep looking for a solution, Grunkle Stan assured Dipper, but his parents were coming up for the twins’ birthday. They couldn’t pretend everything was alright after that. The fact was, by then they’d have spent three weeks with one less child than they were supposed to be minding.

The deadline was closing in, and Dipper was getting frantic.

He stopped working shifts at the gift shop entirely, instead devoting every second he could to finding a way – _any_ way – to bring Mabel home.

Wendy, Soos, and the Stans all tried their best to coax him down from the attic, but they were never quite able.

They were just a few days from the deadline – from the day that _everything_ would have to change. Too close for comfort.

\--

Mabel was actively pretending that their 13th birthday wasn’t hurtling toward them.

Max and Ursa’s parents were going to come for the party, and then bring them home. Mabel didn’t know what was going to happen to her if she was still stuck here when they had to leave.

She really, really didn’t want to think about it.

Most of the time she managed just that; Mabel Pines was nothing if not the queen of denial. But in the moments between waking and sleep, it hung over her.

In her nightmares, she was trapped here forever, and Dipper wasted away back home, trying to break through a solid wall.

_ No, no, no, no! _

She was going to get home. She had to.

\--

_Hey. Hey Kid! Long time no see._

“Go away!” Ursa – well, ‘shouted’ isn’t an entirely accurate description, but perhaps _said forcefully._

_Aw, don’t you want to play? We had so much fun last time._

“You know, that’s not really how I remember it,” Ursa replied idly. She clicked the pen she’d been turning over in her hands a few times.

_Don’t be a spoilsport, Pine Tree._

“What do you want, Bill?”

_I just want to give you a hand. Is that so surprising?_

Bill blinked into visibility, just in front of Ursa.

She waved her hand, as if to brush him aside. “What’s your angle?”

 _Oh, you know, about 60 degrees._ If he had eyebrows, they’d have been raised.

“Shut up,” Ursa snapped. “I know you want something, so stop beating around the bush.”

_I told you already, kiddo, I just want to help._

“Yeah, sure. The last time you said that, you _possessed_ me!” Ursa snapped. “I almost died!”

Bill waved a dismissive hand. _Only your body._

“Some comfort.”

_Look, you’re just going to have to believe me. The kid wasn’t supposed to end up here; she went off script._

“That’s really not comforting,” said Ursa. “Would you just leave me alone? Dipper and I are kind of on a time limit, and –“

 _Right, right. You want to get the girl home before your little counterpart gets locked out of Gravity Falls for the year, eh? Well you’ll never manage_ that _without my help._

Ursa turned her back to Bill, starting to walk away. “I think we’re managing alright, thanks.”

_I could always go make this proposal to the other one. He’s got so much less to lose._

“Don’t you _touch_ Dipper Pines!”

_Aw, why not? You’d get the Shooting Star home, and I’d –_

“Stop, please,” Ursa said, clenching her fists. “He’s – he’s not right right now, he wouldn’t – he couldn’t say –“

 _No_? _That’s the appeal, kid._

Ursa squeezed her eyes shut. “What do you want?”


	6. gzpv nv slnv

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end, sort of.  
> It's one of two possible endings, that is. You decide for yourself which you prefer.  
> [To be clear, this chapter and the chapter that follows are an either/or thing. You only have to read one, but either could be true.]

[02:32 30 August 2012]

 

Ursa was tossing and turning in her sleep, mumbling. She woke Mabel, who was still sleeping uneasily herself in the too-familiar-unfamiliar attic, first. Max followed his double to consciousness quickly, finely tuned to the sound of his sister’s distress.

Max and Mabel sat tangled together on Max’s bed, watching Ursa’s fitful sleep.

“Should we wake her up?” Mabel whispered.

“Not yet,” Max replied, squeezing her hand. “She’s a sleep-puncher.”

“So is Dipper, but he’s pretty weak,” said Mabel. Ursa kicked her blankets off, rolling over. “She doesn’t look okay.”

Max frowned, fidgeting a little. “She’s been sleeping badly since the whole –“ he gestured vaguely toward a cardboard box full of socks and sock puppets, - “ _Bill_ thing. But she – she gets mad when I wake her, or try to talk about it.”

Ursa mumbled something that might’ve been “ _leave him alone_ ,” or possibly “ _give him my phone_.”

“Come on,” Mabel declared, launching herself off of the bed – barely missing the air mattress – and pulling Max with her. She climbed over Ursa and flopped onto the bed next to her. Max crawled to Ursa’s other side, pulling her abandoned pillow toward him.

Ursa relaxed, just a fraction at first. When her frantic breathing finally slowed, she uncurled from the tense, guarded position she’d been in before.

Eventually, Max and Mabel drifted back to sleep as well.

 

[10:36 30 August 2012]

 

Dipper stumbled into the kitchen, rubbing his eyes. He’d slept fitfully, and ended up falling off of the bed.

What he needed now was a quick breakfast – did they have any cereal left, or was he going to be stuck making waffles from scratch? – and to get back to work. He was so, so close to getting Mabel home, he could feel it.

Only close wasn’t _there_ , but the deadline –

“Dipper, we need to talk,” Stan said, steering him by the shoulders into one of the kitchen chairs.

“No!” Dipper shouted. He jumped to his feet, waving his hands frantically. “No, just give me a few more hours, I can _do_ this!”

“Dipper,” Stan repeated, sighing, “you can’t put this off forever.”

“Just give me a few more hours,” pleaded Dipper.

Stanford pushed Dipper back into his chair and sat down next to his brother. “You have to understand, Dipper, it isn’t just about you. If your parents –“

“I know! I _know,_ ” said Dipper. “Just a few more hours. I can do this.” He looked at Stan, eyes wide and pleading. “I don’t want to turn into _you_.”

The Stans looked at each other. Stanford raised his eyebrows, tipping his head slightly to the side.

Stan sighed, defeated. “You have until midnight. But that’s final, ya hear?”

Dipper jumped up again. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

He grabbed a banana and scurried out of the kitchen.

Stan’s voice followed him out. _“That might’ve been a mistake.”_

[15:42 30 August 2012]

 

“Hey, Grunkle Ford, would you put May on my shoulders so that she can pin up this sign?”

Ford raised his eyebrows. “Haven’t you two figured out how to do that on your own?”

“Not while I’m holding a staple gun, we haven’t!” Mabel pointed out, waving the aforementioned hardware.

Ford shook his head, chuckling, but scooped Mabel up and put her on Max’s shoulders anyway. “There you go. Unleash hell. Try not to hurt yourselves.”

“ _RAAAAAAH!”_ Max shouted, holding tight to Mabel’s legs and running toward their target: the only blank stretch of wall left.

They’d been decorating all day, leaving no space untouched. This party was going to be the be-all-end-all of parties, the greatest shindig ever to grace Gravity Falls. It was their last hurrah before the end of summer and – they hoped – before Mabel went home.

(No one had seen a hair of Ursa since breakfast, which was probably a good sign.)

The last sign was enormous and sparkly, with a big number 39 in the centre. The 39 was, of course, because Ursa, Max, and Mabel were turning thirteen (times three). It was a tradition that went back all the way to the Stan Squad’s youth, although there were still a few 13s around, if you knew where to look.

If Mabel was, perhaps, a bit distracted, well – you can hardly blame her for that.

 

[22:08 30 August 2012]

 

Dipper had reluctantly dozed off, sitting half-upright in his bed with his face pressed against the wall. There were books and notebooks strewn all around him, though he’d finally cleared off some of the paper scraps.

The room was strange; it felt unoccupied, unloved, even though someone had been living there all summer. Someone and a pig, to be specific, and the pig was _not_ the messy one in that equation. There was a feeling of disuse, despite nearly _constant_ use over the last few days.

Dipper woke with a start, kicking his legs out violently and sending books flying.

“ _STAAANS! WE FIGURED IT OUT! DON’T CALL THE POLICE!”_

[01:16 31 August 2012]

 

“Mabel,” Ursa said, shaking her awake. “Mabel, wake up, we got it!”

“Wha?” replied Mabel sleepily.

“Get up, get up!” said Ursa. She pulled Mabel to her feet, then grabbed blindly for her brother, too.

It wasn’t until she’d dragged them all the way down to the basement that Mabel got a good look at her friend. Ursa was a little shaky; her eyes were slightly unfocused and she looked like she’d recently suffered a minor nosebleed.

“Ursa, are you okay?” Mabel asked, frowning.

Ursa grinned. “I’m fine. Better than fine, I’m _awesome._ And you’re going home.”

“You made it work?” asked Max. He looked concerned for his sister’s well-being, and looped an arm around her back to support her when she stumbled.

“Yeah! Very little demonic involvement, even. I’m _fine_ , Max,” Ursa said.

Mabel was about to protest – Ursa looked distinctly _not_ fine, and lying about it did no one any good – but before she could, there was a sound like ripping fabric behind her. She turned around and saw a glowing, gaping hole in the middle of the room. It looked like someone had taken a knife and torn through the fabric of the universe.

And standing on the other side was Dipper.

It was like looking through a window; all around the tear, Mabel saw _this_ universe’s Mystery Shack basement, but behind Dipper, she could see the remnants of the portal that sent her here in the first place.

“Mabel?” he said, like even _he_ almost couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Dipper!” Mabel replied. She turned back to Max and Ursa. “Thank you so much, guys.”

Max waved her on. “You’re welcome, May. Now, go home!”

Mabel grinned and launched herself through the tear, into her brother’s arms.

“And hey!” Ursa’s voice called as the tear in the universe closed behind Mabel. “Happy birthday!”

(They never did tell their parents.)


	7. gsv olmt dzb slnv

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND NOW IT'S DONE FOR REAL!!  
> This chapter is pretty long, relative to the other ones, because it covers _way_ more time than any other chapter.  
>  A few quick notes to make things clearer:  
> \- In this universe, Dipper and Mabel know ASL. (This is actually always my headcanon, but it's relevant in this chapter.)  
> \- Baby John and Anybodys are both members of the Jets in West Side Story.  
> \- Both segments for any given year are roughly the same _part_ of that year.  
>  \- Ursa was probably lying about the lack of demonic involvement in the other ending.

_…Or maybe it didn’t go so perfectly._

 

Stan held firm on his deadline. They just couldn’t put it off any longer. They had to accept that Mabel was –

She would make it back eventually, of that Stan had no doubt. But he also knew that if someone didn’t make Dipper stop, it would eat him up inside. He’d lose himself in trying to find a way.

And so would everyone else.

If Stan hadn’t stopped Dipper (slowed him down, really), they would have lost him to it. Sure, the kid could say he was close, but Stan knew he was likely just kidding himself.

Dipper could hate Stan forever if he wanted to, but completely losing _one_ child in a summer was more than enough.

So, as he’d said he would, Stan reported Mabel missing. The story they told was that she’d gone exploring in the forest one last time before they left and didn’t come home when it got dark – that they’d looked for her, but no one had seen her in hours.

That they were all so very worried.

They _were,_ of course, but Mabel wasn’t lost in the woods. She was safe and taken care of, off in some other Mystery Shack. It wasn’t much of a comfort for Dipper, but it did make Stan feel a little less blindingly guilty.

\--

Dipper was whisked away home to California before he’d even had a chance to protest.

(Thirteen was unquestionably the worst birthday Dipper had ever had.)

Mom left no uncertainty; he would not be allowed to return to Gravity Falls next summer. The Stans would still be invited down for the winter holidays, but it was a near thing.

The first day of seventh grade was _weird._

Not a single person in their class had it in them to not bring up the gaping, dizzying absence.

“Hey, Dip, where’s your sis?” one of their few classmates who considered herself _his_ friend as much as Mabel’s asked.

“She’s gone, Mer,” Dipper said, for easily the sixteenth time that day.

“Oh, no,” Merry replied. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Dipper shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Well if you ever do –“

“Yeah,” said Dipper. “I know.”

“Mikey, too,” Merry reminded him.

“What’s the sign for ‘apocalypse’?” Dipper asked.

Merry’s eyes went wide and her jaw dropped, and Dipper laughed for the first time in days.

\--

Thirteen was easily the weirdest birthday Mabel had ever had.

First Mom-Not-Mom asked Mabel if it was her first time sharing a birthday (“You look a little sulky, and I heard Lee wish you a happy birthday earlier…”), then Orion Northwest showed up to the party in disguise and handed her a poorly wrapped gift which turned out to contain a sewing kit and a $100 universal gift card (“Uh, Ursa said you’re sorta stuck here for a while, so I thought you might want some clothes of your own. I’m taking you shopping next week.”), and then to top it all off, half of the cupcakes spontaneously combusted (“It’s okay, kiddo, we made extra.”).

And then Ursa and Max went home, and Mabel stayed in Gravity Falls. A few documents were forged, and before she knew it, Mabel was signed up at the local middle school.

Candy and Grenda were both in Mabel’s class, and surprisingly enough Orion was, too.

“I totally thought you’d go to some snooty private school,” Mabel admitted in homeroom.

“It was this or boarding school in, like, Indiana,” Orion said, shrugging. “So I’m here.”

Mabel grinned. “Well, I’m glad you’re here. This whole _moving_ thing is weird.”

\--

Dipper really truly wasn’t allowed back to Gravity Falls the next summer, no matter how much he begged. He kept vague contact with Ursa, and she in turn kept him in vague contact with his sister, but on the whole Dipper was forced to adjust to being a lot more on his own than he’d ever been before.

(Honestly, he’d never realised how much of his life was tangled up with his sister’s –even back home, where they hadn’t been as in sync and they hadn’t been as happy, all without even noticing they weren’t – until she wasn’t there at all.)

He did, eventually, learn the sign for apocalypse. That was a weird day; Mikey and Merry didn’t want to believe the crazy story he told them at first, but they did come around after a while. He spent most of the summer before 8th grade in their basement, trying to come up with another way to bring Mabel home.

The Stans came down to Piedmont for the winter holidays – which were, as celebrated by the Pineses, a vague amalgamation of Hanukkah and Christmas that involved a truly stunning assortment of religion-based holiday regalia mixed in with the odd Santa figurine.

“I didn’t get a good look at that book your Grunkle Stanford gave you,” Mom said at the end of their Christmas party. “What’s it about?”

Dipper picked up the large, navy blue book from under the tree. “Nothing. It’s a journal.”

“Oh, that’s nice!” replied Mom. “Do you think you’re actually going to use it?”

“Yeah, definitely,” said Dipper. “But I need to dig out Mabel’s art supplies. This needs some dressing up.”

\--

“Hey, Mabel!” Grenda called. “My family’s having a carolling party and YOU’RE INVITED!”

“Oh my gosh!” replied Mabel. “I _love_ carolling! When is it?”

“Friday after next.”

Mabel’s face fell. “Oh, no. I can’t go! The Stan Squad are taking me down to visit my cousins on the 19th.”

“Aw, man,” said Grenda. “Maybe next year.”

“Yeah!” Mabel said. “Thanks for thinking of me, anyway.”

The Pines Family’s crazy holiday extravaganza was holiday-tastic. Max had made a really spectacular number of paper snowflakes, and had made them into tiny snowflake bombs that exploded out of every present that he’d been allowed to wrap. Mabel baked a bright green cake and frosted it in blue, and everybody was over the moon about it. It was really quite an achievement; her first three attempts hadn’t been nearly as successful, either because the colour wasn’t right or (in one case) because _someone_ hadn’t remembered to take their latest experiment out of the oven and the kitchen had ended up smelling like gnome barf for days.

She’d fallen into a strange sort of rhythm in the last year or so; it still felt strange to be _so_ far from home, to be all on her own in a different world entirely, but she was finally feeling steadier, and even being in Piedmont again didn’t leave her as shaken as it had last year.

This place mightn’t be her real home, but it was starting to feel like something close.

\--

Freshman year brought a well-needed change for Dipper. He was surrounded by new people, who didn’t give him funny looks like he’d lost his head or turned blue or something.

It was like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He was still looking for a solution for Mabel, of course, but it no longer felt like it dominated his life. Nobody here was asking awkward questions about what had happened to her or where she’d gone, and he felt like he was free to slow down and spend a little more time and energy on other things.

It helped some that Ursa assured him that Mabel had settled in, too. This whole mess – it wasn’t ideal, but it was life. And if the ‘Stan Squad’ was any indication, there was no telling how long it would take to sort out. So he let himself relax a little, and it made everything a little bit better.

Well, nearly everything.

“ _You’re going_ ,” Mikey signed, before pointedly crossing his arms.

“ _I don’t want –_ “

But Dipper wasn’t allowed to finish his sentence, because Mikey had taken him by the arm and started dragging him toward the classroom.

“Don’t fight it, Fun Dip! You _like_ chess!” Merry called gleefully from down the hall.

Dipper groaned dramatically, but in the end let Mikey pull him into the room and put his name down for Chess Club.

(And maybe, reluctantly, he even had fun.)

\--

Within the first six weeks of high school, Mabel had joined six school clubs: Crafting, Knitting, Scrapbooking, Martial Arts, Drama, and Yearbook!

She’d made all sorts of new friends; even though most her own class was the same from GFJH, her clubs and mixed classes gave her a chance to hang out with kids from other grades.

“How do you even make six clubs work, May?” Orion asked. “I’m swamped and I’m just in the play!”

“That’s because you’re bad at time management,” replied Mabel, bopping him on the nose with her pen. That wasn’t really it – yearbook only met once a month, and Crafting and Knitting were alternate Thursdays – but she liked to tease him.

Orion elbowed her. “Hey, I have a _lead_.”

“Why yes, yes you do,” Mabel said. “And how _is_ playing Baby John working out for you?”

“Aw, shut up!”

“Never!” She dove away from him, missing the edge of the beat-up couch and tumbling onto the floor. “Not until you admit that we’re equals!”

“Noooo,” Orion cried dramatically. “Anybodys isn’t even part of the gang!”

Mabel snorted. “And how many lines do you have, again?”

“That’s not important right now. Get up, we’re missing the movie,” said Orion.

Mabel giggled, but let him help her back onto the couch without further comment.

\--

The summer after Sophomore year, Dipper was finally allowed to return to Gravity Falls.

Wendy was getting ready to leave for college, so her shifts at the Mystery Shack were a little more sporadic, but she made a point to make time for the two of them to hang out.

“Dude, where’ve you _been_ for the last few years?” she asked one day. “It’s like you dropped off the map for a while there.”

Dipper scratched just behind his ear. “Sorry about that. I went a little crazy for a while after Mabel got stuck in the other universe. It’s cool, now, though. I’m doing better now.”

Wendy ruffled his hair. “Good. I was worried about you, kid.”

“Oh. Uh, thanks?” replied Dipper, blushing faintly. He cast around for a good change of subject. “Hey, do you want to go on a monster hunt with me this weekend?”

“Sure,” said Wendy, grinning. “Sounds like fun. What are we lookin’ for?”

“You’re the one who lives here full-time,” Dipper answered. “You tell me.”

\--

“URSA MAJOR!”

Ursa choked on her apple juice as she was tackled by her not-cousin. “Somebody’s been into the Mabel Juice again.”

“ _Nah_ , this is 100% organic excitement!” Mabel replied, rolling off of her. “The Northwests are on vacation and Grenda’s at cheer camp and Candy is _grounded_ so I’ve been all on my own for, like, a week. You guys get ALL OF MY ENERGY!”

Max, who was still happily seated at the kitchen table, laughed. “We missed you, too, May-May. How’s Waddles?”

“He’s _enormous_ ,” said Mabel, flopping back onto the floor. To Ursa, she added, “He sleeps on the second bed when you’re not around. You’re just gonna have to share.”

Ursa spluttered. Mabel jumped to her feet.

“Hey, May, Ursa’s gonna be in the lab, like, _all_ day. Wanna go do something awesome?” asked Max.

“Heck yeah!” Mabel replied. “I bet Wendy’s free, too. Let’s go!”

Max jumped up from the table and grabbed Mabel by the arm. They ran out the back door, just catching Ursa’s shout of, “Yeah, _fine_! I’m gonna go reclaim my bed from your _dumb pet pig_!”

\--

He started the second journal over spring break in his junior year. He dotted the navy blue cover with stars; the Big Dipper. On the upper left corner, he labelled it with a neat red _2_.

There wasn’t much for him to actively study at home in Piedmont, but he was still keeping a record of his attempts to reach through to the other universe.

(He was _not_ dabbling in witchcraft, whatever _certain classmates_ seemed to think.)

Over that same break, he received a very, very unexpected phone call.

_“Dipper?”_

“Pacifica?”

_“Yeah. Hey.”_

“Why are you calling me? We _never_ talk outside of Gravity Falls.”

“ _Uh, sorry? Look, I need your help with something. You live in California, right?”_

 _“_ Yeah, Piedmont. Why?”

There was a pause, and for a little while all that he could hear through the phone was the sound of a keyboard clicking. “ _That’s not that far from here. I’m coming to get you.”_

 _“_ Pacifica! Hold up! I can’t just pick up and _leave_ ; you have to tell me why! At the very least so that I can come up with a good excuse for my parents! They’re understandably a little paranoid about me just vanishing.”

_“Oh, uh, right. Sorry about that. There’s something in the woods near the vacation house. It keeps leaving glowing goo on the trees. I thought you might be interested?”_

“Oh yeah, totally. How long do I have to come up with an excuse?”

“ _Maybe two hours?”_

“Done. See you then.”

\--

“ _Ruuuuun!”_

“I’m _running_ , ‘Rion!”

“Run faster!” Orion urged.

Mabel rolled her eyes. “ _Gee_ , Ri, that never occurred to me!”

Over the headsets they were both wearing, Ursa’s voice said, “ _Hey, guys, could one of you tell me whether its eyes are glowing? I think I have it narrowed down, and that might –_ “

“No!” Mabel and Orion replied in unison.

“Sorry, Urs, but we’re a little busy running for our lives,” Orion added.

“ _No, no, it’s cool. I’ve been there. Just try to get a glimpse before you get back in the house_.”

“Yeah, will do,” said Mabel.

They just barely made it back to the mansion in one piece, before collapsing in a muddy heap on the hall floor.

“You know, when you invited me here for spring break, I didn’t think we’d just end up doing the same sort of thing we do at home,” Mabel said when she’d finally caught her breath.

“Yeah, well, _that’s_ never happened before!” Orion replied, jabbing over his shoulder at the door with his thumb. “I think you must be cursed or something.”

“Not recently,” said Mabel. Orion chuckled.

“ _So, guys, did either of you see its eyes?”_

\--

He’d been invited up to prom in Gravity Falls. He was only actually allowed to _go_ because he swore left, right, and sideways that he wouldn’t go wandering through the forest, especially at night.

(His mother was still a bit wary about Gravity Falls.)

He didn’t exactly keep to that promise, though.

Halfway through the dance, Pacifica made an offhand comment about her mom’s favourite tailor, and Dipper had a breakthrough.

Of course, he didn’t actually run out of the dance at that moment; that would be impolite. He even contained himself through Pacifica’s crazy after party.

But the moment the party died down, he dove for his jacket.

“Thanks for inviting me,” Dipper said sincerely. “And _thanks_ ; you gave me the best idea.”

“I did?” replied Pacifica, confused.

“Yeah,” said Dipper. “If this works, I’ll – I’ll show you what I did. It’ll be great.”

“Good luck, I guess,” Pacifica said.

“Thanks,” Dipper repeated. Unthinkingly, he kissed her on the cheek and darted out the door, leaving a slightly perplexed (and slightly pink) Pacifica in his wake.

He knew how to bring Mabel home, he just had to make it work.

\--

The theme for prom was the 1920s, so Mabel spent forty minutes sitting very, very still while Candy pinned her hair up into a neat bob. Grenda, who’d become something of a makeup expert in the last few years, did makeup for all three of them that sparkled just slightly in the right light.

Once they were all dolled up, they met up with their dates. Grenda’s boyfriend had made a special trip to Oregon just for the event, and Candy’s girlfriend had been getting ready with her own group of friends.

Mabel was going with Orion, as _friends, thank you very much._

GFHS’s prom themes were not to be taken lightly, so they danced period-appropriate dances to period-appropriate music for half of the dance, before the DJ finally relented and put on a song written _this_ century.

Afterward, they retreated to the Northwest mansion for the best after party this side of the Mississippi. Mabel finally crashed around 3am, dozing off in a guest room down the hall from Orion’s.

(They’d planned for this; Ford and Lee weren’t expecting her home until midday tomorrow. But, really as long as she made it home sometime before dark, they’d be cool with it.)

She woke up around 10:30 and wandered down to the kitchen. Orion was already perched on a stool at the counter, eating pancakes. “I’ll walk you home after breakfast.”

As soon as he said it, a plate of pancakes and a glass of orange juice were placed in front of Mabel. “Thanks.”

“Everybody else’s already gone, too,” Orion continued around a mouthful of food. “So we can take our time walking back to the Shack.”

“As long as we avoid the gnomes,” said Mabel.

“Yeah, definitely.”

They ate a leisurely breakfast, and then Mabel went back upstairs to change into the second set of clothes she’d brought with her.

Orion was waiting for her by the front door, with an affectionate smile on his face. They wandered their way back toward the Mystery Shack, chatting about school and the coming summer and college and things.

And then, not twenty minutes from home, they heard a very strange noise, like somebody had torn a piece of fabric with their bare hands. Accompanying the sound was a rip through the air just in front of them; a glowing, gaping hole in the universe.

It looked almost like a window to a near-identical stretch of forest.

Only standing in the window was unmistakeably Dipper Pines.

“It – it _worked!”_ he cheered.

“Dipper!” Mabel cried. She launched herself forward, reaching out for her brother.

“You can come through,” Dipper said. “You can come _home_.”

Mabel froze. She twisted around to look at her friend, who was staring, stunned, at the tear. “Orion.”

“Yeah, May?” he replied without looking at her.

“You have to tell Ford and Lee what happened,” she said seriously. “Tell them Dipper figured it out. They’ll believe you, eventually.”

“Yeah, I’m not looking forward to that conversation,” said Orion, finally breaking his gaze away from Dipper.

“Please,” Mabel insisted.

“I will, Mabel. Don’t worry,” Orion said. He frowned. “I’m really glad I know you, May.”

“You, too, ‘Rion,” replied Mabel. She took the backpack he was carrying for her, then gave him a quick squeeze. “Thanks.”

Then she turned back around and jumped through the portal, throwing her arms around her brother as she did so.

It took six years, but she was finally home.


End file.
